Roe v. Wade: 45 years later:

On January 22, 2018, we commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion in the United States. In these 45 years, there have been over 60 million abortions – surgical abortions – in this country! That does not include abortions caused by the “birth control pill,” “Plan B,” the “Morning After Pill,” or IUDs!

If, on average, each post-abortive woman (a woman who has had an abortion) had two abortions – many have only one, but some women have multiple abortions – then there are approximately 30 million women who are post-abortive in America. And probably a similar number of men. So: there are about 60 million women and men in America who are parents of aborted children. Is it any wonder that there is so much depression, anxiety, and drug, alcohol and pornography addiction in our country?

If you are one of the nearly 25% of adults in America who is hurting, deep within your heart and soul, who has unresolved grief or signs of PTSD-type trauma, and an abortion in your past might be part of why you are hurting, why not make a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat for healing the pain, grief, wounds and trauma of abortion? Why not seek healing? Why not seek to heal what might be at the root of your pain?

Our retreat team (and hundreds of other Rachel’s Vineyard teams around the USA and around the world) is made up of women and men who have been through our retreats. Many of us were once wounded by our past abortions, but we have found healing – and we would like to help you to find healing too! Please contact us for more information – our contact information and upcoming retreats are listed on the bottom, right corner of this website.

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Testimonials

On a trip to Mexico, her parents’ homeland, Rosemary Medeiros was visiting a chapel for adoration when she heard a voice say, “I have forgiven you; now forgive yourself.”

“I walked out shocked,” she said. “I knew in my heart it was the abortion I’d had 33 years earlier.”

When she was just out of high school and still living with her parents, Rosemary had become pregnant the first time she slept with her now husband, Joey. Ashamed and terrified that her father would throw her out, she and Joey had gone to a clinic for an abortion.

“I walked out of there feeling so empty,” she said. “It changed everything about me.”

After her experience in Mexico and back in the United States, Rosemary started listening to Catholic Radio. There she heard about Rachel’s Vineyard, a nationwide ministry that runs weekend retreats for women and men who seek healing after abortion.

She asked Joey to join her for the Friday-through-Sunday retreat in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco.

“Initially, I thought, ‘That’s so far in the past, why do we have to revisit it?’ ” Joey said. “But I wanted to support her, so I went. And it was a very healing experience. I was able to absorb and feel what had happened. Until then, I didn’t know how to deal with the hurt.”

The secret the two of them had shared for decades was now out in the open: They told their four grown children. And Rosemary began telling her story to help After the Choice, a ministry of the Oakland, Calif., diocese, spread the word about healing after abortion. After the Choice connects women and men suffering from post-abortion guilt and regret with spiritual healing, mostly at Rachel’s Vineyard weekend retreats.

Upcoming Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats in the Mid-South:

Western Kentucky
(Owensboro area):
April 5 through 7, 2019
November 8 through 10, 2019